1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a reversible spring-biased hinge for use on inner freezer compartment doors of single door refrigerators.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the art to provide evaporator compartment doors of refrigerators with an over-center spring to bias the door to both the open and closed positions. The art recognizes the problem of an evaporator compartment door which is hinged at a first side while a main refrigerator door is hinged at an opposite side of a refrigerator. This problem is overcome in U. S. Pat. No. 2,634,465 which discloses a door biasing assembly which is changeable from being biased toward either the open position or the closed position to being biased only toward the closed position so that the evaporator door is not damaged by the accidental closing of an oppositely hinged refrigerator door.
Over-center springs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,537,379 and 2,505,467 for use on doors and gates, respectively.
A reversible spring hinge is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 527,158 which uses a coiled spring encircling the pintle, or hinge pin, and may be mounted either as a surface hinge or as a double swing mortise hinge.
A double-acting refrigerator door hinge and sliding lock-bolt is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,582 which includes pairs of hinge pins at each side of the door and a slide bar which locks one of the pairs of hinge pins in place while enabling the other pair to move outwardly so that the door is selectively openable from either side by shifting the slide bar.